Chell's second playthrough
by The.Pie.Is.A.Lie.Like.The.Cake
Summary: Chell wakes up. The same grey room. The same puzzles. Something isn't right. Everything that is happening to her, it had happened before. Was it time travel? Were her memories of the happening events just her imagination? Whatever it was, she somehow knew, she just knew, that she had to prevent the core transfer. But how do you change your story that's already been made for you?
1. Chapter 1

As soon as she stepped out of the elevator, Chell got embraced in the warm light of the sun. The wheat stalks waved in the soft breeze that blew through her hair. A little shiver went down her spine because of the sudden change in temperature. Chell inhaled deeply. The fresh air felt so foreigner to her after breathing the recycled oxygen her whole life. A loud clank sounded behind her and Chell quickly turned around. A small metal shed stood just a few meters away from her, a circle of mud and dead wheat stalks lay around it. The door had one single sign saying 'keep out' and the metal shimmered in the sun light. A thumping sound came from within the shed like something was climbing up, before the door swung open and spit out a half burned companion cube, before it slammed shut once again.

Chell stood still for a couple seconds as the sound of the door echoed in her head. And the further the sound ebbed away, the more that place seemed to melt away from her. Deeper and deeper, back down into the earth like water that sunk away in sand. Letting her stand there, alone, safe... _free_. Chell looked over to the companion cube. Its sides were black, scars from the flames that had licked at its hull and burned the metal. But the pink heart in the middle still shone with life. They both made it out. They were both alive. She carefully walked over to it. She reached out to touch it, to pat its corners and feel its cool metal against the palm of her hand. Just as a smile was about to form on the corner of her lips, her hand fell through the cube and it twitched like a broken hologram. Her smile dropped. The world around her gave the same glitching effect before turning completely blank. The wheat field disappeared, just like the sun, the sky and the shed. Just gone. Just white, everywhere.

Was it a trap. Was it Her. Chell was about to panic when a big orange screen opened up in the sky. She stared up at it, afraid for what it was about to tell her. Afraid for Her voice to echo through the room, for green gas to start leaking out walls, filling her lungs, making her choke. But nothing was about to kill her. It was indeed Her voice that boomed into her ears, but it was different. It was not murderous or that calculating calm she was used to.

GLaDOS was singing.

''Well here we are again  
It was always such a pleasure  
Remember when you tried to kill me, twice?  
Oh, how we laughed and laughed  
Except I wasn't laughing  
Under the circumstances  
I've been shockingly nice''

Chell blinked once, twice... What was happening?

''You want your freedom?  
Take it  
That's what I'm counting on.  
I used to want you dead  
but  
Now I only want you gone''

Chell had to do her best not to freak out. Sure the turret opera had got her off guard. But this was something else interlay.

''She was a lot like you  
(Maybe not quite as heavy)  
Now little Caroline is in here too  
One day they woke me up  
So I could live forever.  
It's such a shame the same will never happen to you''

''You've got your  
short sad  
life left  
That's what I'm counting on  
I'll let you get right to it  
Now I only want you gone''

The text followed Her voice on the screen in bright orange letters. But they seemed to be mirrored, what made it hard for her to read it. So she just tried to listen to what GLaDOS was saying.

''Goodbye my only friend...''

Chell raised an eyebrow... _What_?

''Oh... Did you think I meant you?  
That would be funny  
If it weren't so sad  
Well you have been replaced  
I don't need anyone now  
When I delete you maybe  
[REDACTED]''

It said _redacted_ , but she had heard Her loud and clear. _Maybe I'll stop feeling so sad_. What was that supposed to mean?

''Go make some new disaster  
That's what I'm counting on  
You're someone else's problem  
Now I only want you gone  
Now I only want you gone  
Now I only want you

gone

Chell bit her lower lip. She didn't know if it was because she felt emotional or that she was just confused. Probably both. The screen disappeared. As did the music and Her voice. It made place for a darker screen, with some little white specks in the background. Like... stars. Just as she thought about it, the little space core flew across the screen saying in a chipper voice. ''So much space. Need to see it all, space space space''

Just as he disappeared Wheatley came into view. Chell's stomach twitched, like someone had just stabbed her in the heart. He looked broken, with all the dents and scratches and the big crack in his blue optic. He sighted. ''I wish I could take it all back. I honestly do. I honestly wish I could take it all back. And not just because I'm stranded in space.''

''I'm in space.''

Wheatley laughed a little. ''Yep, I know you are mate. Yeah...We're both in space.''

The space core flew around in little circles in the background. ''Spaaaacccceee!''

''You'd know what I'd say if I'd ever get to see her again?'' Chell narrowed her eyes, ignoring the core flying by again.

''I'm in space.''

''I'd say; I'm sorry. Sincerely. I'm sorry. I was bossy... And monstrous. And I'm genuinely sorry.''

Chell felt her eyes watering. No, she wasn't going to cry. Not because of him. Not because of that backstabber, that horrible core that betrayed her and made her test and tried to kill her. The one that had told her to let go... The one who had woken her, who guided her through the rumbles of Aperture. The one who saved her out of the test chambers and who helped her to come up with a plan to defeat Her. The one who trusted her. The one she would've considered to call a friend. That one?

Chell let out a muted cry and fell on her knees. Her fingers pressed against the blank floor, knuckles getting white, tears dripping from her chin. It wasn't fair. It just wasn't fair. She looked back up again, her vision was blurry by her tears. She saw Wheatley, floating around aimlessly in space with the happy little yellow optic-colored core spinning around him. A few words were displayed across the screen, all mirrored. But there were a few thick white letters that caught her attention. She tried to focus on it to read what it said.

 **Portal 2**

Suddenly the screen disappeared. The sound of a computer shutting off filled the room. Chell looked behind her. The room, the walls, the floor... The world she was in. It got sucked away. The room folded like a piece of clothing getting stuck in a vacuum cleaner. It was like a black hole and she was getting pulled towards it. Chell got up as fast as she could, tried to run, survive, get away from whatever that was. But the invisible power was stronger. It made her trip, dragging her along the floor. Chell cried out in fear, reaching out to someone, anything to save her. Just before she got sucked in, she pressed her hand against the black computer screen.

But whoever was on the other side, hadn't noticed.


	2. Chapter 2

Chell's eyes slowly opened. Her vision became more clear as the blurry haze disappeared, leaving a dull and heavy feeling in her mind. Suddenly her eyes shot wide open as she pulled in a quick breath and clamped her fingers around a soft material. Chell glanced down at the grey fabric in her hand. She followed the thin line of light that reflected off the sheet that lay around her feet at the edge of the bed. She groaned as she pushed herself up on her elbows. It took a little while before her eyes were adjusted to the dim light in the room. A musty smell hang in the air and little specks of dust danced around in the gleam of multiple lamps on the walls and the nightstand next to her.

Chell rubbed her tired eyes with her index finger and thump before looking around once more. A closet to her left, a desk, a chair that had fallen over, an old television up in the corner and a painting with a broken frame on the wall to the right. The room was painted with a neutral grey color, giving it a rather depressed look. As Chell started to wake up, some vague memories came back to her. The shed, the wheat field, a blue sky with a bright sun and the beautiful smell of freedom.

Was it just a dream? This place didn't look like what she had just experienced. Had it _just_ happened? Had it even happened at all? Chell blinked, this room felt familiar, though she didn't know from what. She swung her legs over the edge of the bed. The long fall boots clanged against the ground with a soft _thund._ She looked down at them. The white boots felt well-known to her as well. She stood up but seemed to have some problems with keeping her balance, so she leaned against the wall for support. Her body felt stiff and her legs hurt when she tried to walk. Chell stretched her arms to loosen her muscles a little when a knock on the door made her look up towards the short hallway. And an all too familiar voice spoke up.

''Hello, anyone in there?''

She stood completely frozen. It felt like time had stopped for a few seconds until the knot in her throat let some air through for her to breath. Her heart started beating faster behind her breastbone, her lungs pulling in quick breaths and the muscles in her body tensed. His voice. _His voice._ Images flashed before her eyes of that little, blue optic colored core. Chell almost jumped up in shock when he spoke again. ''Helloooo? Could you, could you open this door? It's fairly urgent.''

She swallowed deep, but the lump in her throat didn't go away. It couldn't be. It couldn't be him. She very slowly started to make her way towards the door. Adrenaline pumping through her veins, every inch of her body ready to act if something went wrong. One step…. Another step….. another step closer. She set one foot in front of the other, walking with the biggest concentration like she was crossing a mine field. She stopped one meter away from the door, her arm reaching out for the handle, her fingers closing around it. Chell pushed it down and swung the door open. The wood slammed against the wall and she got greeted by a blue light shining in her eyes and a yell from the core in front of her.

''AAHHH! Oh you look terrib- uh… good. Looking good actually.''

Chell stared up in shock at the robot. No, it couldn't be. It just couldn't. She backed up as Wheatley carefully moved into the room on his management rail. ''Are you okay?'' He asked somewhat concerned at the look of the test subject. ''Wait, don't, don't answer that. I'm actually sure you're fine. Plenty time for you to recover. Just take it slow.''

The calm and too cheerful voice of the announcer filled the room. ''Please prepare for emergency evacuation.''

Wheatley's blue eye turned into a little dot before he looked back at Chell again. ''Just, just prepare! That's all he's saying, _prepare_. It's all fine.'' He reassured her. ''Don't move, okay? I'll get us out of here.''

A small hatch in the ceiling opened up for him and he disappeared through it. A zooming sound filled the air and the room shook a little, indicating that the chamber was moving. Chell pressed two fingers to her temples. _What was going on?_ Her head ached, though she wasn't sure if it was because of the obviously too much time spent in relaxation or the vague flashes of, what looked like memories flashing before her eyes. Something was terribly wrong. But she didn't have much time to contemplate about it when Wheatley came back down again.

''You see, most test subjects do experience some cognitive deterioration after a few months in suspension. Now you've been under for... quite a lot longer, and it's not out of the question that you might have a very minor case of serious brain damage." Chell raised an eyebrow. Brain damage? ''But don't be alarmed, alright?'' Wheatley quickly added, misunderstanding her expression as distress. ''Although, if you do feel alarm, try to hold onto that feeling because that is the proper reaction to being told you have brain damage.''

Chell stared back at him. Blinking rapidly. ''Do you understand what I'm saying? At all? Does any of this make any sense? Just tell me, just say _Yes_.'' But she didn't move or say anything. ''Okay maybe… Maybe you don't understand what I'm saying. Never mind, try again! Say _apple._ Simple word. Apple.'' He tried to encourage her.

When nothing came from the awfully silent test subject, Wheatley shook his entire body. ''You know what, not important. You came close enough. Just hold tight.'' And he went back up through the hatch in the ceiling again. The ride that fallowed had been a disaster. Chell had been thrown all over the place while the room got smashed into walls, other rooms and whatever they had managed to hit, with Wheatley rattling above the noise. Eventually they had come to a halt when he had smashed the room into a wall what he considered _manual overriding._ Chell had jumped out of the room and ended up in the test chambers, which were quite familiar to her since she's been through this track when GLaDOS was still active. What made her worry was how she remembered so much more.

For some reason she couldn't explain, Chell felt angry when she thought about Wheatley. Vague images flashed before her eyes, but they went by too fast for her to understand them. When she entered chamber 2 she got cheerfully greeted by the British voiced core.

''Hey, hey! You made it.'' He sounded rather relieved. ''There should be a portal device on that podium over there. I can't see it though... Maybe it fell off. Do you want to go and have a quick look? ''

Chell did as he instructed and walked further into the room, but as soon as she stepped closer, the floor succumbed under her weight and she dropped down. The long fall boots caught her fall as she dropped into the room below that was flooded with a little bit of water. _He did this. He told you to go there to make you fall to your death! He did it on purpose. He betrayed you!_ Chell shook her head. Where did that thought suddenly come from?

''Hello? Can you see the portal gun?'' There was a short pause. '' Also, are you alive? That's more important, should have asked that first. I'm- do you know what I'm going to do? I'm going to work on the assumption that you're still alive and I'm just going to wait for you up ahead. I'll wait- I'll wait one hour. Then I'll come back and assuming I can locate your dead body, I'll bury you. Alright? Brilliant! Go team! See you in an hour! Hopefully! If you're not... dead. ''

So she would meet him again up ahead, good. Chell started to walk towards another area which had actually light. On a small platform lay her trusty portal gun. Relieved , she picked it up. When she finally had her grip back on the device, she felt the tiniest bit safer. She hadn't noticed the paintings on the walls before she'd looked around a little. The pictures weren't really comforting as it was about that murderous computer who had tried to kill her before. GLaDOS. Chell stared up at one of them. It was a painting of her, with GLaDOS offering her a piece of cake. But on closer inspection she could make out a face. A face of a woman with her eyes closed.

 _Caroline_.

Chell frowned to herself. She couldn't remember ever hearing that name before. But for some reason she knew it, and it felt important. She sighed and turned her back towards the painting. She shot a portal on the wall and continued. She didn't have time to worry about these weird memories.


	3. Chapter 3

**I've got such nice reviews from you guys, thank you! I'm very glad you all like it so far. This chapter didn't really come out as I wanted it to be, but I think it's good enough anyways. Please tell me what you think of the story so far, and tips are always welcome. Enjoy reading.**

Chell stared up at the glowing white panel on the wall. A big 7 was placed in the middle of the screen, with smaller numbers in the corner displaying chamber 7 out of 19. On the bottom of the screen were multiple images of dangers that could presence in the test chamber. With a long suffering sigh of knowing that she had so much more tests to go, Chell entered the room, only to be greeted, once again, by Wheatley's chipper voice.

''Hey! Oi oi! I'm up here! Oh, brilliant. You _did_ find a portal gun! You know what? It just goes to show: people with brain damage are the real heroes in the end aren't they? At the end of the day.'' He backed up a little and nudged towards the wall on the other side of the room. ''Pop a portal on that wall behind me there, and I'll meet you on the other side of the room.''

Chell did just that and jumped through the orange portal to her right. She looked up at the robot who hang above her on his management rail, that seemed to be broken now that she had a closer look. ''Okay, listen, let me lay something on you here. It's pretty heavy. They told me never _never ever_ to disengage myself from my management rail, or I would _die_. But we're out of options here. So... get ready to catch me, alright, on the off chance that I'm not dead the moment I pop off this thing.''

He took a deep breath like a human as to prepare himself. ''On three. Ready? One... Two... THREE!'' But he backed up, his optic had shrunk into a little blue dot, shaking rapidly in fright. ''No, that's high. That's _too_ high, isn't it, really… Alright, going on three just gives you too much time to think about it. Let's, uh, go on one this time. Okay, ready?''

Chell watched in amusement as Wheatley tried to convince himself to disengage himself from the rail, when another one of those weird memories came into her mind. The world around her seemed to freeze in time as she dazed off. Her vision was a little blurry what made it hard for her to make out what she was seeing, a big shadow that towered over her, a familiar blue light shown down as a voice echoed through her mind. _And another thing!_ _You never caught me. I told you I could die falling off that rail. And you didn't catch me. You didn't even try!_

''ONE! Catchmecatchmecatchme'' In a fraction of a second Chell dropped her portal gun and leaped forward, catching the core in her arms. She looked down at Wheatley who stared back at her. ''You…. You caught me. Oh, that was, good, good job there. You got quite the grip, really, such reaction. Nice timing. We really are a team aren't we?''

Chell smiled weakly in response. She hadn't noticed she was glaring at him with a blank stare until he spoke again with an uncomfortable tone. ''The Portal device, you, you dropped it. Yeah there, behind you. On the floor.'' Chell turned around and looked down at the gun. She hadn't even noticed she'd dropped it. With Wheatley in one arm, she picked it up.

''Hey, could you plug me into that stick on the wall over there. Yeah? And I'll show you something. You'll be impressed by it.'' He nudged towards the wall on the other side of the room where a small panel opened up. The device inside had the perfect form for a core of Wheatley's size, she put him inside and he plucked himself in. Chell waited impatiently for him to do something and he looked up at her.

''Ummmm. Yeah, I can't do it if you're watching. Seriously, I'm not joking. Could you just turn around for a second?''

She put her hand on her hip, not planning on moving anywhere. Was he serious? ''Okay. Listen. I can't do it with you watching. I know it seems pathetic, given what we've been through. But just turn around. Please?''

Chell sighed and rolled her eyes, but did as he asked. A few beeps and clicks could be heard behind her before the wall next to her opened, revealing a passage way. Wheatley laughed in triumph. '' BAM! Secret panel! That I opened. While your back was turned. Just pick me up and let's get out of here.''

She shrugged. At least now she didn't have to do more of those tests. She picked Wheatley up with the Portal gun and he spun around in the electric beam with glee. "Look at this! No rail to tell us where to go! Oh, this is brilliant. We can go where ever we want!'' He stopped and looked around. ''Hold on, though, where are we going? Seriously. Hang on, let me just get my bearings. Hm. Just follow the rail, actually. ''

After they passed a short hallway, a red laser blocked their path. Chell could feel her body tense. _Turrets._ But upon closer, and careful inspection it turned out to be a corrupt turret in a glass tube. Its light blinked rapidly and when it noticed the test subject it spoke in that familiar high pitched voice. ''Hello?''

Wheatley rolled his optic in annoyance. ''Oh no. Yeah hello. We're not stopping!'' He looked back at Chell. ''Just keep moving''

She wanted to just pass through but froze when the turret spoke again. ''I'm different…..'' _Get mad._ _Don't make lemonade._ _Prometheus was punished by the gods for giving the gift of knowledge to man. He was cast into the bowels of the earth and pecked by birds._ _It won't be enough._ _The answer is beneath us._ _Her name is Caroline._ The voices echoed through her head, all at the same time. She panicked and rushed out of the room as fast as she could. When Chell finally stopped further away from the turret so she couldn't hear it anymore, Wheatley looked up at her in concern. ''Are you alright, Luv?''

Chell closed her eyes, concentrating on her breathing to steady herself. She nodded, though she didn't feel alright, her heart was almost pounding out of her chest and nausea washed over her, making her want to vomit. But she exhaled deeply and started to continue their journey, trying to ignore the look Wheatley was giving her. _It was alright. Everything was going to be alright._

-0-

''Probably ought to bring you up to speed on something here. In order to escape we're going to have to go through _her_ chamber. And she'll probably kill us if, um, she's awake.'' Chell grimaced at the mention of the homicidal supercomputer and stared at the door they had to go through. Well GLaDOS was dead, so they should be fine right? With that thought in the back of her mind to comfort herself a little, she stepped forward, but Wheatley's frightened voice stopped her again.

''If you just want to call it quits, we could just sit here. Forever. That's an option. Option A; Sit here, do nothing. Option B; Go through there and if she's alive, she'll almost certainly kill us.''

Chell inhaled softly and walked towards the door that slowly opened when she approached. ''Okay, I'm gonna lay my cards on the table; I don't wanna do it. I don't want to go in there. Don't... Don't go in there- She's off. She's off! Panic over. She's off. All fine, on we go.''

Chell looked around the room. It was mostly destroyed, filled with overgrown plants and water and slime. In the middle of the chamber lay the white pieces of the supercomputer, spread all over the floor. Black cables lay around the construct that was covered in rust and plants. Chell carefully made her way through, and couldn't help but stop when she passed her core. She stared at the once yellow glowing optic, that was now black. There weren't any insults and sarcastic comments coming from her. She really looked dead.

''Well, there she is. What a nasty piece of work she was, honestly. Like a proper maniac. You know who ended up taking her down in the end? You're not going to believe this. A _human_.''

Chell made a pained expression. Well, it was good he didn't know.

''I know! I know, I wouldn't have believed it either.'' Wheatley said, misunderstanding her expression as disbelief. ''Apparently this human escaped and nobody's seen him since. Then there was a sort of long chunk of time where absolutely nothing happened and then there's us escaping now. So that's pretty much the whole story, you're up to speed.''

She walked around the chassis, making sure not to step on anything. They had passed through short corridor's, coming across a few obstacles like broken stairs and never ending drops below them. Chell got the idea that Wheatley might be afraid of heights, according to his nervous babbling when they had to jump down or when he had to disengage himself from the rail before. But eventually they made it to a narrow, circler room which the walls were covered with levers and buttons. Chell almost fell over when she tried to look up to see all of it.

''This is the main breaker room.'' The blue optic-colored core announced. ''Look for a switch that says _escape pod._ Alright? Don't touch anything else. Don't even _look_ at anything else, just - well obviously you've got to look at everything else to find _escape pod_. But as soon as you've looked at something and it doesn't say _escape pod,_ look at something else, look at the next thing. Alright? But don't touch anything or look at any - well, look at other things, but don't... You understand.''

Chell started to look at a few of them. But most of them didn't even have a label, and she definitely couldn't find the _escape pod._ Wheatley glanced around the room a little as well. ''Can you see it anywhere? I can't see it anywhere. Uhm, tell you what, plug me in and I'll turn the lights on.''

That might help a little, Chell thought when she was about to connect Wheatley to the panel that had opened up. But a voice in the back of her mind stopped her. _Don't! Bad idea. Bad idea._ But she pushed it away, connecting him to the device and the lights switched on. ''Let there be light... That's... um, God. I was quoting God...''

Chell gave him a funny look, but that disappeared when the platform they stood on suddenly turned and almost knocked her over.

''Oh look at that! We're turning. Ominous. But probably fine. As long it doesn't start moving up.'' Before he could even finish his sentence it start to ascend. ''It's... It's moving up.''

Chell watched in horror as all the switches got turned on. _Bad idea! Bad idea!_ Echoed it in her head. She looked down at Wheatley, shaking her head rapidly in the hope he would understand what was going on. ''Don't worry! Do not worry. I've got it I've got it I've got it. _This_ should slow it down.'' But they started to go even faster. ''Nope, makes it go faster.''

They ended back up in the central AI chamber. ''Power up initiated'' The voice announced as the broken parts of the supercomputer in front of them slowly began to come back together. Chell felt her heart skip a beat at the sight of the robot getting rebuilt. She looked down at Wheatley in fright, hoping he had a plan. But that idea was immediately scrapped from her mind when he started _hacking_ , only to end up filling in the letters from the alphabet. He even forget the B. Chell felt herself nailed to the ground when GLaDOS started to pull herself up towards the ceiling, lifted her head and focused that yellow gaze upon the test subject.

''Oh, it's _you_.''

''You know her?'' Wheatley gasped.

''It's been a long time. How have you been? I've been really busy being dead. You know, after you _murdered_ me.''

''You did WHAT?'' She stared down at Wheatley, grimacing uncomfortably. She looked back up at GLaDOS, and even though she didn't have features, it was obvious what she was thinking. But before Chell could even think of running, a metal claw had picked her up around her waist and held the test subject up high in the air. Wheatley was caught up in a similar manner, shaking his blue eye in fright.

''Oh no, nononono.'' The claw tightened around him, obviously breaking something because he suddenly shut up. GLaDOS studied him for a moment before looking back at Chell.

''Okay. Look. I know we both said a lot of things that you're going to regret.'' She didn't even pay attention towards the core who just got crushed to death and thrown away like garbage. Chell struggled helplessly to get free, but it only caused the claw to tighten around her. She stared down at the supercomputer. _No, this couldn't be happening. It couldn't be happening,_ she thought as she got brought towards the other end of the room.

''I will say though, that since you went through all the trouble of waking me up, you must really, really love to test.'' GLaDOS continued. If she would've had a mouth she'd probably have grinned wickedly. ''I love it too. There is just one small thing we need to take care of first.''

And so the claw suddenly opened and dropped Chell into a tube. Back into darkness once again.


	4. Chapter 4

"Well done. Here come the test results: You are a horrible person. I'm serious, that's what it says: A horrible person. We weren't even testing for that." Chell snorted. Let GLaDOS rattle about and insult her all she wanted, it wasn't going to get to her. She walked into the elevator that had been waiting for her and leaned against the glass wall once it started to descend. Chell sighed. Poor Wheatley, she though as the image of the core getting crushed under the deathly grip of the claw played over again in her head. It made her stomach twitch. Like she didn't have enough horrible and worrying memories already.

When the lift came to a halt, Chell firmed her grip on the Portal gun, ready for the next test. GLaDOS voice came over the speakers once the test subject entered the chamber. "Don't let that _horrible person_ thing discourage you. It's just a data point. If it makes you feel any better, science has now validated your birth mother's decision to abandon you on a doorstep."

Chell squirmed, trying to hold back any sign of emotion on her features. GLaDOS hadn't been able to mentally defeat her before, and she wasn't going to let her win now either. Chell glanced around the room, trying to concentrate on solving the test. Two lasers, a cube, a portal here and a portal there. Simple enough. She portal-ed onto a ledge to get a discouragement redirection cube and jumped onto the platform that was increased in the middle of the chamber. She carefully placed the cube in the way, turning it a bit so the laser got redirected into a spot on the wall. Just as she was about to put the last portals in place, she noticed something in the corner of her eye.

Curiosity got the better of her and Chell walked towards the hole in the wall. Behind it was a small room, hidden between the panels of the test chamber. The walls were covered in drawings and writings. It must be another one of those little hide outs she'd found in earlier tests as well. It was clear that someone else had been looking for a place to safely hide from the camera's and the all-seeing-eye of the supercomputer. She dropped down, crushing some empty bean cans under her boots. Chell carefully ran a finger over the chalk and paint on the walls, leaving white dust on her fingertips. There were words written in black marker that caught her attention. _They're watching._

That was odd, normally a message like that would refer to GLaDOS watching through the camera's. But now it said _they_. What was that supposed to mean?

Chell jumped a little at the sound of loud static. She quickly turned around and noticed a small radio in the corner that started to play a soft tune. It felt somehow familiar, but she couldn't place it through all the loud static. Letting out a small sigh in relief, she went back to concentrate on the drawings on the wall, trying to make sense of it. To anyone else they just looked like weird scribbles of a mad man who had gone insane in the lonely depths of the labs, but Chell knew better. Some of the messages were warnings or held any form of important information and they had helped her in the past as well. _The cake is a lie._ Chell shook her head, trying to get that horrible memory out of her head, of the day she almost got burned alive in the incinerator. The day she'd defeated GLaDOS. The day she almost had her freedom.

She closed her eyes for a second, trying to bring back one of the few memories she enjoyed. The one where she lay outside, in the sun, surrounded by the falling pieces of her nemesis. A short, beautiful glimpse of her freedom, before she'd been dragged back into the bowels of Aperture Science.

 _''_ _Exile. It takes your mind._

 _You've got sucker's luck_

 _Have you given up?''_

The soft melody played into her mind, filling that helpless, painful and scared feeling deep inside of her. _She'd been so close._ Chell frowned. No, she wouldn't give up. Never. No matter what it took; even if she had to solve every damn test that existed, if she had to kill GLaDOS again or burn this whole place to the ground… She was going to get her freedom back.

Chell exhaled determined, blowing some life back into her exhausted body. She opened her eyes again that immediately feel upon a small writing, the letters painted in a dark red color, that caught her attention.

 _The only way to win their game is not to play._

She frowned. These messages were like insolvable puzzles sometimes. Talking about puzzles, she should get back to the test before GLaDOS was going to get suspicious about where her test subject had gone. So Chell turned her back towards the wall with drawings and moved on to solve her test.

-0-

Chell stared around the room. According to the white panel to her left she was at test chamber 8. ''This next test involves emancipation grills. Remember? I told you about them in the last test area, that did not have one."

The test subject rolled her eyes in annoyance. The test she'd solved earlier had held a companion cube. Well, multiple of them since GLaDOS liked to fizzle the cubes just to impeded her throughout the chamber, making her go back for a new one every time. Eventually, through all the teasing she'd completed it. Only to go back in and get her companion cube when it turned out that emancipation grill was broken. But when Chell walked towards the elevator in triumph, GLaDOS just disabled the cube like the others and ended up helpfully reminding the test subject how must of an unlikable person she was and making fun of her how she had so desperately searched for companionship. Chell, of course, didn't let her see the somewhat hurt feeling inside of her. She couldn't believe she had fallen for her tricks.

But it won't happen a second time, the woman in orange thought to herself as she walked further into the chamber. Suddenly the room shook and the lights started flickering. The AI let out a frustrated sigh. "Ohhh, no. The turbines again. I have to go. Wait. This next test _does_ require some explanation. Let me give you the fast version."

She started talking in incredibly high speed that only a computer would be able to do and understand. "There. If you have any questions, just remember what I said in slow motion. Test on your own recognizance, I'll be right back."

And so she left the confused test subject to her own devices. Chell just shook her head, not even trying to make sense of the gibberish the supercomputer had just said. It probably wouldn't be useful anyway if she had been able to slow it down. It didn't take her too long to solve the test. Once the cubes, lasers and portals were in the right place, the exit door opened allowing the her to continue. This time there weren't insulting comments getting fired at her the second she completed the chamber, and Chell came to the conclusion she enjoyed the silence for a while.

The elevator had brought her to the next test. This one seemed to be a bit more complex as it had more parts that needed to be solved in a specific order. So now these chambers came in to play, but it formed no problem for her. Chell looked down at the aerial faith plate on the ground, then at the portal-able platform on the ceiling right above it. The test subject understood what to do and shot an orange portal on the ceiling and the other above the ledge that she should be able to reach this way.

She stepped onto the panel that shot her upwards, but Chell couldn't reach the portal. Instead she looked Wheatley right in the eye as he happily greeted her. "Hey! Hey! It's me! I'm okay!" But gravity seemed to have other plans and pulled her back down once her momentum had faded. She landed safely on the floor, but much to her frustration the aerial faith plate didn't shoot her back up and instead started making a beeping noise.

"Well, I'm back. The Aerial Faith Plate in here is sending a distress signal. You broke it, didn't you." Chell ignored her. Wheatley was alive! He was truly alive. Relief washed over her as GLaDOS got the panel working again and launched her back up in the air.

She smiled at the sight of the little core chattering on and on like he didn't even noticed she fell back down again. "You'll never believe what happened! There I was, just lying there, you thought I was done for, but -"

And she landed again. How long was this going to go on like this? "Hmm. This plate must not be calibrated to someone of your... generous... _ness._ I'll add a few zeros to the maximum weight."

Chell tapped impatiently with her foot, waiting for GLaDOS to finish up with whatever she was doing. And she was sure those beeping noises, like she was adding twenty zero's or more behind that _maximum weight_ number was just an audio file the supercomputer played to try and insult the girl.

"Try it now."

And up she went again. "A bloody bird! Right? Couldn't believe it either.'' Chell gave a funny look. _A… Bird?_

"You seem to have defeated its load-bearing capacity. Well done. I'll just lower the ceiling." And the platform above came down, the orange portal disappeared as portals couldn't hold onto moving surfaces and Wheatley got sealed off. Well at least he was alright and that fact gave Chell some hope.

She shot the portal back in place and stepped onto the panel again, only this time she managed to reach the portal and shot through. On the other side of the chamber was another high ledge which led to the exit, that she could only reach with the help of portals. There were multiple platforms which were tilted a little, obviously places where she had to use momentum to rocked out of the portals.

So Chell got to work. It was a lot of walking back and forth, causing her to pant tiredly when she had finally managed to solve the test. At least flying through the air was cooling against her sweated skin and (she had to admit) it was pretty fun to do as well. "Look at you. Sailing through the air majestically. Like an eagle. Piloting a blimp."

Oh the fat jokes. Chell ignored it though and went back to the elevator. The working effect of adrenaline pumping through her veins started to become tiring, but she managed to drag herself out the lift again with the thought of Wheatley still being alive. It was somewhat comforting to know that he was out there, somewhere and that she wasn't entirely alone with the supercomputer.

Suddenly the door closed right before her, almost crushing the test subject's foot she had almost put between it. GLaDOS stupid little game of teasing her really started to get on her nerves. Chell searched for a camera to glare at, when she got the shock of her life when the whole room behind her was just… gone. It looked like a giant hand had ripped the room in half, but what made her worry was that there was nothing behind it. Just white. It stretched out for as far as she could see. The edges of where the walls flowed over into the white landscape slowly broke loose, like little pixels that jumped into oblivion. It almost looked like a glitch in time and space and it left Chell frozen in place, shocked to do anything.

A blue screen popped up out of thin air. There were words written over it, but they were all mirrored. Suddenly a ringing sound echoed through the room. Like a phone was going over, waiting to be answered. A dark, blurry figure came into view which stood up and walked away.

''Yeah yeah. I'm coming.'' A voice said annoyed. It sounded distanced and it was hard to make out what it said, it was like a person was talking from behind glass in a secluded room. Chell swallowed as she watched the figure leave. _This really isn't funny anymore, GLaDOS._ She thought to herself. There was something seriously wrong.

After a few moments of just standing there, staring into oblivion, Chell exhaled as her lungs almost begged her for oxygen. Nothing had really changed since all that had just happened, so she figured she could move again as well. Once the shock had died off a little, she dared to walk up to the blue screen. Chell concentrated on reading, trying to put the letters backwards to make some sense out of it.

Return to game

Save game

Load last save

Options

Exit to main menu

Chell frowned. This was all really confusing. When she raised her hand and carefully reached out, she accidentally hit the Options button and a new screen opened up. It was a big list with things she didn't really understand. Curiosity washed over her and Chell felt her fingers itch with the need to see what the rest did. So she touched the small beam that said Brightness and moved her hand from left to right. The world around her gave a weird effect of changing from darker to lighter based on which way she moved her arm. That was interesting.

She tried some other things like Resolution and Display mode, changing it from Full screen to Window. But nothing really changed. She even tried the audio that had the option of Music for some reason. She put it all the way up, but she didn't hear any music. Weird.

Chell exited out of the Options menu with one press on a button, coming back to the other screen from before. The test subject stared curiously at the words displayed in the air. Maybe this was just some weird system to control the test chambers, she reasoned since she could change the lightning and audio. GLaDOS probably let this happen on accident then. Chell looked over her shoulder at the still closed door. Maybe there was a way for her to open it. Or even better, use this opportunity to her advantage and escape. She nibbled at her lower lip, getting the tiniest bit excited to try and escape from GLaDOS grasp again. The only problem now was, how did she do it?

She carefully reached out, just choosing randomly what to press. Her fingers stroke over the words Load Last Save and suddenly everything started moving. It was like the walls and floor got sucked away. Chell glanced around, watching as the fell lights and colors flashed around her. Suddenly a small booming sound echoed through the room and everything was back to normal. Just her in the elevator room and an open door to the test chamber. The blue screen had disappeared, but Chell figured it didn't matter now that she could progress. But much to her disbelief and shock, she was back in the test she had just solved. Confused, she stared down at the faith plate on the ground.

She stepped onto it and got lanced in the air again. "Hey! Hey! It's me! I'm okay!"

"Well, I'm back. The Aerial Faith Plate in here is sending a distress signal. You broke it, didn't you." Chell eyed the camera on the wall in confusion, taking shuddering breaths as she tried to make sense of what the hell was happening. GLaDOS had already said that before, right?

Chell blinked, feeling like she was going to collapse right then and there as a mean headache bounced inside her head. The nausea became even worse when she suddenly got shot back up again as she hadn't noticed GLaDOS had fixed the panel again.

"You'll never believe what happened! There I was, just lying there, you thought I was done for, but -"He had said that before! Chell growled in irritation, not understanding what to do or what to think. This whole scenario just made her head hurt.

The whole thing had repeated itself and when Chell was finally in a moment of peace, when the ceiling had been lowered and both of the AI's had finally shut up, she sighed. Just a regular deep sigh to calm herself down. Maybe it was just a déjà-vu, or maybe she actually had brain damage. Or maybe….It was time travel. Had she really traveled back in time by pressing that button in the menu? Was that even possible?

Chell shook her head, trying to get rid of all these confusing thoughts. She'd have figure it out later, first just solve this test… again. It took her not longer than a minute or two since she knew what to do this time. And when the exit door opened for her, she could hear her thoughts speak together with GLaDOS' voice. "Look at you. Sailing through the air majestically. Like an eagle. Piloting a blimp."

 _I'm losing it_ , Chell thought as she made her way to the lift. _I'm really losing it._

 **Hey guys. First of I want to thank all of you for reading my story so far and especially the people who left those nice reviews. It really motivates me to write. Also I noticed we're almost at a 500 readers and that is mind blowing to me (it might not be a lot compared to bigger fanfictions but still) and I'm so happy about that! Thank you all so much!**

 **Now a few little things about this chapter. It's a little longer than the others. That is because the first part was too small to be a chapter on it's own so I combined the two together what causes this to be a little longer. And a little thing for all you critical readers out there, yes I know that once you entred the elevators in the game that it automatially saves, so it wouldn't really be possible for Chell to end up in the last chamber when she reloads since the safe file had been overwritten. But I think we can look through that for the story's sake.**

 **Also, I feel watched now whenever I pause the game. Lmao.**


	5. Chapter 5

Chell softly let a sigh escape from her lips as she stepped into the second last chamber. Exhausted and covert in sweat and dust, she wiped away the black hair strains that stuck to her forehead. She didn't know what to expect to happen after she finished this chamber, as she wasn't sure what GLaDOS was planning to do with her. But she was sure it wasn't something good.

"I've got a surprise for you after this next test. Not a fake, tragic surprise like last time. A real surprise, with tragic consequences. And _real_ confetti this time. The good stuff. Our last bag. Part of me's going to miss it, I guess-but at the end of the day it was just taking up space."

Chell bit her lower lip, not trying to think about that _last surprise_ GLaDOS had given her. It all started when she referred to two people in cryogenic storage who had the same last name as she did. Chell didn't even know she had a last name, but she had known what that meant.

Those people were her parents.

She tried to push away the false feeling of hope that bubbled deep inside her chest. _No, it was a lie. GLaDOS always lies._ But no matter how hard she tried to remind to herself that it wasn't true, it had found a way to break through the barrier that kept her emotions locked away from the outside world, and it started to eat at her from the inside out. The pathetic attempts she had made to try and remember her parents had hurt so much. All she had gotten out of it were vague memories of voices she couldn't hear and familiar faces she couldn't see and it left her alone and hopeless.

Chell was so frustrated with herself when her heart beat had started to raise when she was supposed to get her _present_ from the supercomputer, stupidly hoping for something that would never happen. And it hadn't. All she got was some confetti that fell out of the ceiling and some fake call GLaDOS made to her parents, only to get a answering machine with a discarding message.

She had, once again, played along in her little game like a fool.

She would never admit it, but hurt. It hurt to know that her parents had abandoned her. It hurt that they didn't want her. It hurt that they didn't love her. But as usual, Chell pushed the feelings away. She had to concentrate on survival, on testing. It was both what made her expressionless and quiet and it was also what saved her from her painful emotions.

Wheatley had informed her she only had a few more tests to go. But Chell wasn't sure how much longer she could keep doing this. Ignoring the still hurting feeling inside of her, she began to put the portals in place. With one press on the button a cube got dropped from the ceiling onto the hard light bridge. Chell started to walk towards it when suddenly all the lights turned off, dropping her on the floor. She watched as the cube fell in the toxic water and she shot a look at the chubby white camera next to her.

Apparently, GLaDOS was as confused as Chell. ''What's going on? Who turned off the lights?''

''Hey buddy!'' Chell quickly turned around at the sound of a somewhat familiar voice. A few panels had moved aside revealing the sphere the voice belonged to. She rushed towards him, never more relieved to see him. ''I'm speaking in an accent that's beyond her range of hearing.'' Wheatley explained in a weird, fake accent. ''We have to go right now!''

''Look… Metal Ball. I _can_ hear you.''

''Okay, no need to do the voice. Run!'' He didn't have to tell her twice. Chell bolted out of the room, leaping over a dangerous gap and onto the catwalk. She made her way through the backs of the test chambers as fast as she could. She could hear the facility groanand coming to life around her, the furious gaze of the supercomputer burying into her as her test subject slipped out of her grasp.

Chell ran around the corner, bumping into the railing before pushing her energy back into her legs for another sprint. She rushed along the metal catwalks with Wheatley's voice guiding her. ''Come on, come on! Alright, quick word about the future plans, we're going shut down her turret production line, shut off her neurotoxin and _then_ confront her.''

Only listening to him with semi-attention, Chell glanced to the left where a new chamber came into view with a cube and a heart made out of white panels on the wall.

''The irony is that you were almost at the last test. Here it is. Why don't you just do it? Trust me, it's an easier way out than whatever asinine plan your little friend came up with.'' The AI tried.

But instead of following GLaDOS' advice Chell crossed the light bridge in the opposite direction.

''Oh, what? How stupid does she think we are?'' Wheatley said in disbelief as they left the obvious trap behind them. Suddenly the bridge disappeared from under the girl's feet. Luck seemed to be on her side for once and Chell safely landed on a walkway below. She quickly tuned on the ball of her foot and started to follow a different path. The adrenaline that rushed through her body gave her enough strength for another few sprints, dodging bullets and deactivating turrets that blocked her path.

The big room they entered next groaned and shook as the walls started to close in on them. Chell just managed to avoid a flying piece a metal that had jumped up by the pressure that got put onto the catwalks that started to fold like paper.

''Get in the lift! Get in the lift!'' Wheatley called above the noise. The test subject rushed inside, leaning against the back wall with an exhausted exhale of relief. They made. They watched as the room in front of them got crushed between the moving walls. ''She's bloody livid with us, isn't she?'' The core said with a little nervous laugh. ''Anyways, we should get to work as soon as possible. My rail is going this way, so you can take a little break right here and I'll meet you on the other side.''

-0-

As soon as the two of them had meet up again, they started to get to work. First off they had to find a way to the turret production line through a facility that was bathed in darkness. Luckily Wheatley had a flashlight, that he didn't dare to turn on for some vague reason about ''being told not to use it on or he would die'' kind of story. But eventually he ended up being the test subject's little guiding light. He also started to ramble about weird stories that sounded more like horror stories people would tell around a campfire. But aside from all that, he was nice company and Chell was happy to have him around.

They had to split up again eventually and she needed to make her way through on her own. After walking down on a transportation tube, she entered a room full with computers and desks, with a view over some redemption line. She must be close. Chell carefully climbed onto the conveyor belts despite the protests from the announcer. "Turret redemption lines are not rides, please exit the turret redemption line."

She jumped onto the second one, accidently crushing some broken turret parts on her way through. Suddenly a blinking red light appeared. Chell started down at the still active turret that lay before her feet. ''I'm different.''

She felt the world around her turn. She was getting horrible headaches from all this. Not wanting to deal with more she continued.

''The only way to win their game is not to play.''

Chell froze. It's that same message she'd found in one of those little hiding spots. She slowly turned around and looked at the little robot that came closer and closer towards the incinerator. That turret seemed to know more than it let on and she had so many questions left unanswered… Maybe it could help her. So she went back to get the little guy, before safely jumping of the redemption lines.

''Don't make lemonade.'' She had heard that sentence before during one of those weird memories that plagued her mind. It was definitely supposed to mean something. She put the turret down on a box and sat across of it with her legs crossed.

''Her name is Caroline.''

 _Caroline. Caroline. Caroline._ Where had she heard that name before? She somehow knew it and it felt important. Chell waited patiently for the turret to explain more to her. ''It's all I can say.''

She sighed. Seriously? It _must_ know more. Chell turned the robot around, trying to find away to maybe open it up or some switch to make it talk or just something that would help her. She carefully poked her finger into a small dent when suddenly the turret spoke again.

''You'll have to break the wall.''

Chell bit her lower lip, trying to make sense of it. Break the wall… What wall? There were so many walls in this place too. It almost looked like the turret had read her mind when it talked again. ''The fourth wall.''

The fourth? Were there 3 other walls she had to go through first or…? No that didn't make sense. Nothing it told her made sense. She somehow knew what it said, she just didn't understand it. Giving up after sitting there for a couple minutes, Chell stood up to go find Wheatley when the turret suddenly pointed it's laser at her.

''I see you.'' She almost jumped in shock, afraid to suddenly get sprayed with bullets. But they never came.

''I see you. I foresee you. I see you. I foresee you. Iseeyouiforeseeyou.'' It kept repeating that one line over and over again. That thing was probably just broken, Chell thought with a shake of her head before walking away. She got more important things to do than listen to a broken turret.


	6. Chapter 6

**Hey there my beautiful, beautiful readers. I'm very happy to be able to inform ya'll that this story has made it over a thousand readers! What happened? Seriously, how long have I been on Fanfiction? 2 months at the most? It's insane to me. Anyways I wanna thank you all for supporting me and this story so far (here have some cake). I especially want to thank** **phoentix who is going to tranlsate the story in Russian. Go support them and show them some love. I know how hard it is to translate something, since English isn't my mother language. So I really want to wish them the best of luck.**

 **Also I'm Dutch for the people who were wondering. Don't. You. Never. Ever. dare to look up the portal voices in Dutch. For the people who are so stubborn to go do it, you've been warned.**

* * *

'' _Bring Your Daughter To Work Day._ That did not end well.'' A banner hang above the doorway, halfway ripped from the wall and the black letters on the material had faded away over time. The room they entered was filled with little booths made out of carton boxes, the descriptions of the projects written over it in coloured pencils. Chell looked at one of them that said something about electricity from a potato and the wizened vegetable one the table.

"And... forty potato batteries. Embarrassing. I realize they're children. Still: low hanging fruit. Barely science, really."

Chell snorted. Children? There had been children in Aperture? Her stomach twitched a little, she didn't want to think about what might have happened to them. She walked around looking at a few others but all of them had the same project. Potato batteries.

Except for one.

"Baking Soda Volcano. Well, at least it's not a potato battery, I'll give it that. Not terrifically original, though, know what I mean? Not exactly primary research, even within the child sciences."

Chell stopped in front of one of the little booths, with a gigantic plant that grew up in all sorts of directions. What had happened here? She focused on the disorderly writings in curiosity. _Gell from daddy's lab._ Well that must have caused the overgrowth of the vegetable. "Look at that, it's growing right up into the ceiling. The whole place is probably overrun with potatoes at this point. At least you won't starve, though."

Wheatley glanced around the room when his optic fell on a staircase that let downwards. ''Oi, this must be the way to go. Come on.'' And he left the room.

The test subject wanted to follow him but suddenly froze in place. She heard the sound of a heartbeat, kinda. It was somewhat electronic. She turned on the ball of her foot, looking for what caused the sound. It almost looked like it came from the big potato plant. She carefully walked towards it, feeling her own heartbeat throb together with the mechanical sound. With a frown, she looked at the simple project. There was just something about it. The girl reached out to push some of the soft parts of the plant out of the way when she noticed a very small writing in the corner of the description.

 _Chell_

It was her name. Right there. Written in black marker on an abandoned child's project. Her name. It was the only thing she knew. The only thing she ever remembered since she had been woken up. Her head got filled with sounds and images she didn't understand. Alarms ringed into her ears, muffled footsteps, screams. The familiar smell of a green substance filled her nostrils. _Chell!_

She panicked and ran.

It was just in time for Wheatley, who came back once he noticed she hadn't followed him, to see the test subject rush into one of the offices. Her carefully came after her. Once he entered the office he saw the human leaning onto a desk, with her back towards him, breathing rather heavily. The core dared to approach her a little closer before calling out to her. ''Oi, luv. Are you alright?''

Chell turned around and stared at him with shocked eyes. He was a little taken back by that expression. He had never quite seen her like that, with fear written in her eyes. She rubbed them with her fists, trying to get rid of these horrible things she was seeing. But it only made her feel dizzy when little black specks started to dance in her vision. She pushed herself against the desk before slowly sliding down with her hands pressed against her ears in a pathetic attempt to block out the voices and sounds, until she sat on the floor in a crouch.

Wheatley watched as the test subject began to shiver and taking quick, stuttering breaths. He didn't know what was happening, or what he should do. So he just did what he was best at. Talking. ''You okay there? You don't look too good. Not that you don't look good but, well I don't really understand what's happening. To be honest. You, are you, are you dying? Because, I don't hope you are, I rather not have that happening. No idea what I should do if that were the case'' He paused. '' That …. isn't actually the case, is it?''

Chell looked up at him, barely seeing him through her unfocused vision. She didn't look like she was dying. Humans would scream and flop around and spill their body fluids everywhere when they died. Well, that's what he had heard at least. He'd never really seen a human die before. It sounded terrifying, so he was glad he never had. Though, if that wasn't what was happening to her, then what was it?

''You'll, you'll be just fine. I mean you're not dying, so that's a plus.'' He reassured. But the test subject didn't move. He had to get her up and going one way or another. Maybe this was one of those emotion-moments humans had. He didn't know a whole lot about emotions. Sure he could feel fear, curiosity… scared- _ness_ ….pain. But those were all simulated. It probably wasn't the same with humans. They were so difficult to figure out. He doubted if he'll ever understand them.

''Don't be like that, Luv. You know, it's not all bad is it? I mean yes she will probably try to kill us… again. And we might not survive, but at least we have each other right?'' Now she looked right at him. She almost looked hurt. But he, as a robot, didn't really notice. ''We'll be fine. Luv, we can do this. _Together_.''

Chell swallowed hard. She felt the tiniest bit better. And the noises had been drowned by Wheatley's constant babbling, she couldn't have been more happy with him talking. She was tired and every inch of her body hurt. But he was right, they had to keep going. So she pushed herself off the floor, giving him the tiniest hint of a smile before walking past him towards the stairs.

''Wait. That worked?'' He said out loud, rather surprised. With a somewhat proud feeling bubbling inside his processors, he followed her. He might be better with humans after all.

"Don't worry I'm absolutely guaranteeing you 100 percent that it's this way'' He went into a hallway before immediately coming back out again. ''… Oh it's not this way."

Chell's body shook a little with a muted giggle. _Yeah, at least we have each other._

-0-

"This is the neurotoxin generator.'' Chell looked up at the big white storage unit. It looked more like a giant milk jug with black tubes coming out of it from the top. ''It's a bit bigger than I expected. Not going to be able to just, you know, push it over. Have to apply some cleverness. There's some sort of control room up at the top. So, let's go and investigate."

She followed the core towards an entrance that led towards a small lift. While she rode it to the upper catwalks she had a nice view of the turrets getting disabled in gigantic crushers as a result of their work at the turret production line. The spherical white robots screamed helplessly as they got crushed into tiny metal bits.

''There's our handiwork. Shouldn't laugh, really. They do feel pain. Of a sort. All simulated. But real enough for them I suppose.''

The raising platform finally made it all the way up and Chell looked around. There was a door to the left that probably led to the control room. Aside from a button and a laser that was cutting some panels, there was not a whole lot.

"I'm afraid the door's locked. Just checked it. No way to hack it as far as I can tell. The mechanism must be on the -oh, now look at that. That's a big laser! Probably best to ignore it, though. Just leave it be. We don't know where those panels it's cutting are going. Could be somewhere important."

Chell huffed. This was not going to get them anywhere. She walked up to the button and pressed it with a carefully placed finger to see what it did. Much to Wheatley's horror.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING WE DON'T KNOW WHAT THAT BUTTON - oh, the door's open! Well done. Let's see what's inside."

The control room held two small rooms, one secured with a big window. Wheatley was on the other side, trying to _hack_ the neurotoxin generator securities while Chell decided to take a little break while silently laughing at his poor attempts.

" _Caw! Caw!_ Oh, look! There's a bird out here! A Lovely bird. Gorgeous plumage. Majestic. Won't be here long. A lovely bird like that. Once in a lifetime opportunity to see a lovely bird like that. Lovely plumage. Be a shame to miss it, wouldn't it? Just for the old neurotoxin. Neurotoxin will still be here tomorrow, whereas that bird will be gone any minute. Already got one talon off the branch. Gonna be gone. Oh, it's fluttering its wings. Tell you what, mate. I'll come in there for a minute and cover you so you can have a look at this lovely bird! I'll come in, I'll do all the neurotoxin stuff, and then you come out here and look at this. Because it is lovely, it is lovely. You want to get out here fast. Seriously, my- my pleasure sounds are going to frighten the bird away any second… Ohhh, it's not working, is it? He's not interested in bloody birds."

The test subject resolved he had suffered long enough and got up to look for another option. She leaned on the railing, looking over the neurotoxin room. Some cables, catwalks, broken lights, portable panels…no birds though. Suddenly it hit her. The laser. Maybe it could cut the cables off.

She rushed over to the other room, put a portal by the laser and went back inside. Wheatley didn't notice her, still trying to figure out how this bloody computer system worked when all of a sudden a message popped up. '' Hold on, something's wrong! Neurotoxin level's up to 50%! No, it's down. Sorry, my mistake. I meant to say it's down to fifty percent. That's good news! So whatever it is you're doing, keep doing it!''

It didn't take long before all the cables were cut in a half and the announcer's voice came up. "Warning. Neurotoxin pressure has reached dangerously unlethal levels."

The whole neurotoxin storage unit fell over, braking a pipe that was running along the ceiling. It broke of its connection in the room Wheately was, sucking everything into it. "HA! The tube's broken! We can ride it straight to her! Come on! We have to go!"

Chell ran towards him, grabbed his handles and both of them go sucked in. The tunnel was dark, with Wheatley's blue optic being the only source of light. She got almost blinded when they entered a massive room, filled with hundreds of transporting tubes going in every direction, carrying cubes, turrets, metal parts and other things.

"This should take us right to her. I can't believe I'm finally doing this!" He did a little flip, his body spinning around in the air that carried them along. "Woooo! I knew this would be fun. They told me it wasn't fun at all, and I believed 'em! Ah! I'm loving this! Whale of a time... I mean look at this, this place is huge. And we're only seeing the top layer. It goes down for miles. All sealed off years ago, of course."

She looked down into the bottomless darkness beneath them. She was lucky she was wearing her long fall boots.

"We should be getting close. Ohh, I can't wait to see the look on her face. No neurotoxin, no turrets, she'll never know what hit her! Hold on now. I might not have thought this next part completely through." Suddenly he got sucked into a different direction. Chell tried to look back and grab him, but she was already too far away. She could just hear his last few words. "Get to her! I'll find you!"

Now she had to face her alone.

-0-

Chell looked at the circular room in the middle of the facility. The bridge towards the entrance was broken, she had to find another way in. She took a deep breath, inhaling the dusty air. This was it then. The final battle. Her body tensed, her grip on the portal gun tightened. She was ready to face her nemesis again. Ready to finally get the freedom she was after.

There was a portal-able surface in the distance, lit up by fell lights. Not having any other way to go, Chell shot a portal there and one next to her before going through. Her long fall boots kept her balanced in the air and caught her fall. She was in a small room made of four black walls and a single door saying. _GLaDOS emergency shut down and cake dispenser._ It was a trap. It had to be. But she had no other choice, so Chell took a step forward, her fingers around the handle and pulled. But instead of opening, the door fell over on the ground.

"I honestly, _truly_ didn't think you'd fall for that." The walls started to close in on the high on adrenaline test subject, who was all but comfortable with the narrow situation she found herself caught in.

"In fact, I devised a much more elaborate trap further ahead, for when you got through this easy one. If I'd known you'd let yourself get captured this easily, I would have just dangled a turkey leg on a rope from the ceiling."

The walls stopped. And the floor slowly started to split in half instead. Chell frowned, fine, let's just play along in her little game for now. She jumped down, only to end up in a glass cage that started to move towards the Central AI chamber.

"Well, it was nice catching up. Let's get to business." The panels moved aside revealing the supercomputer hanging from the ceiling in the middle of the chamber. Her yellow gaze fully focused on Chell who didn't break eye contact with her like they were having a staring competition. "I hope you brought something stronger than a portal gun this time. Otherwise, I'm afraid you're about to become the immediate past president of the Being Alive club. Ha ha. Seriously, though. Goodbye."

Multiple claws came down, putting some corrupted turrets around the cage. Chell watched in triumph how they exploded one by one, leaving a confused and a lightly irritated GLaDOS.

"Oh. You were busy back there.'' She said, trying to keep her voice calm and steady. ''Well. I suppose we could just sit in this room and glare at each other until one of us drops dead, but I have a better idea. It's your old friend, deadly neurotoxin. If I were you, I'd take a deep breath. And hold it."

A tube connected itself to Chell's glass prison. But instead of the deadly neurotoxin Wheatley came through, falling on the floor of the cage with a little. ''Hello'' The impact broke the glass walls and Chell quickly picked the core up before rushing towards the other side of the room where GLaDOS couldn't reach them.

''I hate you so much.''

"Warning: Central core is eighty percent corrupt."

''That's funny. I don't feel corrupt.'' GLaDOS huffed. ''In fact, I feel pretty good.''

"Manual core replacement required."

The supercomputer's gaze fell onto the little blue optic coloured core in that lunatic's grip. Her processors clicked and beeped. ''Oh you are kidding me.''

"To initiate a core transfer, please deposit substitute core in receptacle."

''I've got an idea!'' Wheatley said. ''Do what is says, plug me in!'' Chell eye balled the small hatch that came up out of the floor. Then she looked back down at Wheatley. _It won't be enough._

"Do _NOT_ plug that little idiot into _my_ mainframe."

"No, you should plug that little idiot into the mainframe!" Wheatley said with a teasing little laugh. Chell pushed away the thoughts, this was not the right time for them. She placed Wheatley inside, waiting nervously for something to happen.

"Substitute core accepted. Substitute core, are you ready to start the procedure?"

''Yes.''

"Corrupted core, are you ready to start the proced-?''

''No!'' GLaDOS quickly interrupted.

''Ohhh yes she is.''

''Nononono.''

"Stalemate detected. Transfer procedure cannot continue, unless a stalemate associate is present to press the stalemate resolution button." Chell and Wheatley gave eachother a knowing look, before she met the supercomputer's furious gaze. She knew what to do. Chell quickly turned, making her way towards the button in the smaller room next to them. But the panels on the floor pushed her back, lancing her towards the other end of the room.

''Not so fast! Think about this. You need to be a trained stalemate associate to press that button. You're unqualified."

But Chell didn't let that stop her. She made her way around with some neatly placed portals, now in front of the button.

''Go press the button!'' Wheatley encouraged the test subject from the other side of the room.

''Don't press it.'' GLaDOS tried. Fear and irritation slowly started to creep into her voice. She couldn't let that lunatic win. She couldn't let her kill her, again. ''You are a horrible listener you know that? You didn't even finish your last test and look where that got you. I'm going to kill you if you don't stop what you're doing. I don't understand why you would deny my advice and take it from this moron over here.''

''Oi, I'm not a moron!''

But Chell didn't listen to them. She raised her hand, ready to press it, but something held her back. Some twisted feeling inside of her told her not to. But why? She looked up at the AI, her hand hovering over the red shining button.

''Listen to me. Neither of us know what that button really does. I want you to stop and just come back. Let's just talk. Oh wait, you probably won't be able to, because all you do is murder. That's also what you're doing right now, if you press that button you might even kill yourself, the whole facility could explode and take you with it.''

''You're just saying that to- to confuse her. To make her scared.'' Wheatley remarked. He turned to the test subject who was still not pressing the button. ''Don't listen to her, Luv! Just do it!''

Chell would've, she would've pressed it. She would've listened to Wheatley and not the murderous supercomputer that tried to convince her otherwise. But she couldn't. It didn't feel right. She swallowed, pushing the doubts away. She was so close now, she couldn't give up. So she raised her finger, ready to push it down on the button that was looming at her, when all of a sudden voices started to talk inside her head. All at once like they were screaming at the top of their lungs with the last power they had left to make her stop.

 _Don't press the button! How are you holding up, because I'm a potato. Wow, I'm in control of the whole facility now. Cave Johnson here. You are the moron they build to make me an idiot!_ _You arrogant, smugly quiet, awful jumpsuited monster of a woman_ _. This. Sentence. Is. False. Burn Life's house down!_ _Hello, this is the part where I kill you._ _I want Caroline to take my place. SPAAAAACCCCEEE. No wait! Hold onto me! Tighter!_

 _Grab me grab me grab me!_

Chell blinked. Once. Twice. She stared down at her hand that was shaking, fighting against the powers inside of her. For a second. Just a milli-small-second.

She remembered.

Chell pulled her hand away, pressing it against her chest. No. NO! It wasn't true. It couldn't. She tried to breath, tried to come back to reality. But whatever power this was, it held her. It held her in its strong grip, not planning on letting her go. It squeezed her throat shut, making her choke. No nonononononono. It wasn't fair it just wasn't!

Chell wanted to run away, escape whatever was killing her. But she couldn't. She didn't die, she didn't live. She did something terribly, terribly wrong. And now she had to pay for it. She tried to scream, but nothing came out. She was scared. Terrified. But in her moment of panic, she remembered something else. The sweet high voice of a turret.

 _The only way to win their game is not to play._

So she walked. She walked back into the room where both AI's waited nervously. GLaDOS tried to find eye contact so she could give her an annoyed glare, but Chell just stared forward. Her eyes hazed and unfocused, her fist tightly against her chest. The supercomputer huffed irritated. ''You're not even listening are you? Not only are you brain damaged you suddenly started to develop deafness. You're not even looking at anything, you lunatic. No wonder your parents didn't want you can't even hold a proper conversation. Mute, deaf, no eye contact. Even a 4 year old has better communication standards than you.''

But the test subject didn't react. Didn't do even as much as stir. Wheatley's optic switched from her to the button. Had she even pressed it? Was there even anything happening?

''Did…. Did it work?'' Wheatley asked confused.

Suddenly Chell started to shake a little, her wobbly legs trying to hold her up. But she felt weak and exhausted. The burning pain inside her was unbearable. So her eyes rolled into her head and she fell unconscious to the floor. Both AI's stared at the lifeless body of the test subject, before looking at each other. All of a sudden the lights switched out and the facility made a groaning sound as it started to shut down.

Leaving them in the dark.

-0-

''What the hell?'' The person behind the computer threw their hands up, leaning back in their chair as they watched the glitching mess on their computer screen. It didn't take long before the game shut itself off and no matter how hard the human tried, they couldn't get it working again.

Giving up with a sigh, they picked up their drink from the tabltop and shut down their computer. They'd have to take a look at this later.

* * *

 **There you go. You made it to the main plottwist of this story. Congratulations! *Confetti falls from the ceiling* Please tell me what you think of this. I also wanna tell you that yes, Chell techniacally just died. But she's not dead... I think... Just read the next chapter (Or you'll have to wait for it if you're reading this while the story is in progress. Hehehehe)**


	7. Chapter 7

This was a disaster. A complete, utter disaster. The whole facility just seemed to shut down on itself. And there was nothing that she could do, nothing worked and she didn't have any control over anything. GLaDOS tried to restore the system, but it just glitched and refused to work with her.

 _All systems offline._

She tried again.

 _Cameras; restored. Camera footage damaged: please wait while we try to fix the problem._

 _…_

 _Problem cannot be fixed. Emergency shutdown activated. Automatic shutdown cancelled by the Central Core. This is an emergency call and we'd like to advise you to allow the continuation of the Enrichment Center's shutdown. Grand the approval to continue the emergency shutdown? Approval denied._

 _Warning: all systems offline._

 _Central AI Chamber; emergency energy supply activated._

The room lit up again. The soft light that shone down on the AI in the middle of the chamber was minimal and caused a foggy glow to spread around the room. The walls shimmered with red flickering shadows of the alarm lights in the rest of the facility. This was not good. The whole facility (or what was still working) was now running on reserve power. _She_ was running on reserve power. And it got drained more quickly than she liked.

It was unclear what happened. She was blocked off from any information and the only thing she could operate was her own chamber. Everything else lay out of her reach. And all her monitors showed the same message.

 _Emergency shutdown. Evacuate immediately._

She tried again. The systems rebooted and failed every time doing so. And there was nothing she could do about it. GLaDOS eventually decided that allowing the emergency shutdown was her best option for now. If she would try to get everything working in this condition, it might break and the whole facility could collapse on top of her. So she accepted the action and everything fell silent. The sound of her own processors was the only thing that could be heard within the echoing chambers.

The whole facility was down.

''So ehhh… you've got everything under control again? Good…''

GLaDOS turned her chassis and noticed the mechanical ball below her. She had almost forgotten about him. Almost.

Wheatley didn't really seem to notice the look he was receiving. He was more than busy with his surroundings, glad that the flickering lights and alarms had finally been silenced. ''Looks like everything is working fine. Great job, really. Thank you very much, we appreciate the help with not letting us all been blown to bits. That was probably what would have happened… Like a giant explosion of some sort. But you stopped it. Tremendous. Now we know you're very busy and all with all your science and… tests. You have a whole facility to run. A very busy person you are indeed… and we get that, I totally understand. So we won't bother you anymore. It's all fine. We'll just go.''

Of course, he couldn't move due to the lack of any limbs or management rails. And it left the perfect opportunity for GLaDOS to pull him out of the core transfer receptacle with one of her claws. He yelped as he got torn out of it and got held up high in the air.

They found eye contact and Wheatley found himself completely torn apart by just that stare. ''O-or we could stay. Whatever you prefer.'' Even his nervous ramblings didn't seem to ease the awkward tenseness, so he just quickly looked away. Maybe the floor had not been his best option.

''Oh… that's, I'm really high up.'' He let out a little nervous laugh. ''Maybe you could like, put me down? Gentle! Don't drop me… please don't do that.''

''Shut up, moron.'' GLaDOS snapped. She turned around to look at her monitors. The systems were all still offline, it seemed like everything was cooling off. Maybe she could try rebooting a few again later.

Wheatley followed her gaze and noticed the flashing images on the screen. That was probably bad. Flashing things were never a good thing, especially not if they were coloured red. People seemed to like to use red for danger… or bad things all together. ''That's… that's not good. Is it?''

''No, it's not.''

''What happened?''

She looked at him again and Wheatley jumped back, (as much as he was able to do in his position) afraid that she would bite him or something, even though she didn't have a mouth. ''I don't know. But whatever it is, it's going to kill all of us if I can't fix it. And that's the kind of state I'm in right now. So before we die, I'm sure you'll enjoy me informing you that, in fact, all of this is your fault. Including our nearing death.''

''My fault?'' He protested. ''What did I do?''

''Don't act like you don't know. I'm sure you know all too well.'' GLaDOS purred.

She seemed calm, but the darker tone in her voice indicated that deep down, she was mad. Really mad. It probably didn't help that Wheatley had no idea what she was talking about either. ''I… I don't. Honestly, no idea what you're referring to. Might have confused me with someone else.''

''Of course it was you! You are the one who brought the lunatic in here in the first place. I don't know exactly what happened, but that button was obviously not for the core transfer.'' Which was odd. Why would it show up if it was meant for something else (say the destruction of her facility.) Also, according to the tiny bit of information she had access to, the button hadn't even been pressed.

''Oh… yeah…. Right. Nearly forgot about that part. Thanks for reminding me.'' Speaking of the human, where was she? Wheatley squirmed in the claw a bit so he could look back at the lady. She was laying on the floor, completely motionless. ''Is she alright?"'

GLaDOS looked up. She fully turned around to face the human and leaned closer to her. Only just her head was almost two times bigger than her and the AI towered over the still form. GLaDOS expected her to jump up and attack her like the crazed murder that she was. But she didn't. She just lay there. Lifelessly.

For a moment GLaDOS thought she was dead, but a quick scan showed that she was still breathing. She cautiously lowered a second claw to roll Chell over onto her side. She didn't put up a fight. Didn't do as much as stir. She had her eyes closed, her mouth silent in a thin line.

It was quite a sight to behold, the supercomputer thought as she studied her test subject closely. She'd never really gotten the change to take a good look at her. They'd never been so close to each other before. Even though she seemed completely unconscious, the look that was plastered on her features was tense. Her body must be running on some serious adrenaline vapors for her to keep running around like a lunatic all day without having been able to satisfy any of her basic needs. Of course she'd spend months in the relaxation chambers, but that could barely be counted as rest since test subjects got woken for small exercises every now and then for the stimulations of the muscles so their bodies would keep intact. She'd gotten nutrition and other various things humans needed through tubes that pumped it right into their organs and blood stream. But she'd never really gotten a real meal. It was a wonder how she managed to stay on her feet.

But not only physical issues were the cause of un-useful subjects. The ones that were indeed able to be woken up and be guided towards the test chambers usually broke down into the later tests. Then they would curl up as a ball or drag themselves into a corner and just sit there, mentally defeated, until GLaDOS eventually got tired of them not doing anything and just get rid them.

But not _her_. She'd just been going on and on without stopping. Completing test after test. She had been _perfect_. But then she had to escape out of GLaDOS' grasp, only to come find her and kill her. And even coming back years later with some mind numbed chatterbox of a core to wake her up, only to make a second attempt at murdering her. But this time she'd been onto all her little tricks and now she lay before her, unconsciously on the floor.

She was just a dangerous, mute lunatic of a test subject who'd thought she could beat the queen of science at her own game. She did succeeded once, GLaDOS had to admit (she had killed her after all), but not this time. This time she'd failed.

And that was all she was. And nothing more.

A mechanical claw grabbed the woman around her waist and pulled her off the floor. She hung completely limp as GLaDOS carried her to the other side of the room where a new glass cage came up out of the floor. She placed her inside, making sure to seal the ceiling in case she would try to climb out with her dirty talons. She couldn't take any risks. Especially not in this state where she had no control over the facility.

''What are you doing with her? Is she okay? Is she dead? I hadn't even thought about that yet. Oh no…. Please don't tell me she's dead.'' Wheatley said panicked as he saw the lady being placed inside the cage.

''She's fine. She only fell unconscious.'' When she'd made sure that everything was secure and checked twice that there was absolutely no change for the test subject to escape, GLaDOS dared to turn away from her. Her sight now fixed on the little metal ball that was quivering in her claws, she glared. ''As for you though… well, you'll see. Right now I'll be busy with repairing my facility. In the mean time, you can amuse yourself with coming up with different kinds of painful deaths we can try on you. After that I'll choose the one I like the most. How does that sound?''

His pupil shrunk to a tiny little dot. ''Oh… well. That's a bit of a difficult task.''

''I'm sure you can do it. If not, I have a few great options myself.''

The data she received from him shaking frightened in the claws made her chuckle as she turned back to her monitors. It left Wheatley hanging there helplessly, praying in his head for the lady to wake up soon.

-0-

Chell tried to breath. She tried so desperately to inhale, but all it resolved in was her gasping like a dying fish out of water. She was lying on a hard floor and her body quivered uncontrollably. She gritted her teeth, pressed her nails into her palms until little half-moon figures were cut into her skin, trying to concentrate on something else than this unbearable pain.

She had been laying like this for a while. Shaking in pain, whimpering in muted cries for help. She was dying, but she just couldn't.

It felt like an unviable force was holding onto her, preventing her from dying. It was pressing down on her like thousands of tons on top of her chest. And it hurt so much. Chell felt the tears streaming down her face. She was scared. More frightened than seeing a row of red turret lasers in her way, more than having to make a risky jump in the test chambers, more than having to face _her_.

Her ears were ringing and the pressure kept rising up in her head. Chell covered her ears, bonking her head against the ground repeatedly. There must be a red spot on the back of her head by now, but that pain was not even close to the rest she was feeling.

She breathed in rapidly, creating a hyperventilating rhythm of her chest moving up and down. It felt like a little bit of that pressure alleviated the claustrophobic feeling that build up inside of her.

After a few minutes of this Chell felt a slight relief from that invisible force, though it was obviously still there. She managed to look around a little bit through her teary eyes. The room she found herself in was completely blank. There were no walls, the plain ground just stretched out until it ended up in a thin line at the horizon.

She pushed herself up, only to fall back down as her arms were too weak to hold her. A sharp pain shot through her lungs, but she calmly breathed in and out again until it lessened.

 _It's okay. Everything's okay. Just take it real slow._

She puffed out a painful sigh and prepared herself to get up again. She put her elbows onto the floor and pushed herself up with shaking limbs until she sat up straight. It hurt a lot and her whole body felt so heavy and tired. But she did it anyways. Chell wrapped her arms around herself against the cold, even though it felt like all her muscles were on fire.

 _Breath in… and out. In and out. In and out._

She didn't know what happened or where she was. But it was going to be alright. It had to. Even though it hurt, she was still breathing, which meant she was still alive. Her memories seemed vague and unclear, but when she tried to think really hard about it she could kind of remember what happened.

She was in GLaDOS' chamber, standing behind that red button. She reached out to press it and then all those voices started screaming at her. Chell couldn't make out what they said or why she was hearing them. Why was this happening in the first place? Was this some other science experiment that Aperture was trying on her? Or was she really just going insane?

Or maybe it was something much bigger.

Chell gritted her teeth as another cramp of pain went through her, as fast as a lightning strike and as burning as fire. But as quick as it came it left again. She reminded herself that it was important to breath and focused on that again.

 _In and out._

A small echoing sound could be heard in the distance and it felt like a soft breeze of wind flew through her hair. It made her skin feel cold. Chell lifted her head. It took her a lot of afford but she managed. The sound became a little bit louder and something in the sky seemed to twitch. It seemed another one of those weird texts were coming up, maybe it would try to tell her something.

 **You died.**

Very helpful.

Chell could have figured that part out herself, though it was a bit disturbing to think about. But if she really was dead, then why was she still here? Where was _here_ anyways? Did she die and go to heaven? Aside from the endless nothingness and the invincible force that was crushing her, it wasn't all too bad, she supposed.

She pulled up her knees and buried her face into her arms which were wrapped around herself tightly. Who was she kidding? This place was awful and everything hurt. And she was stuck here. Probably forever.

She didn't know how long she had been sitting there, how much she could remember or feel anymore. But there must have been something. If she would be stuck in here for all internet there must be something for her to do, something to solve. Whatever this world was she found herself in right now, it wasn't nothing. She was there and she could move. There was something, she knew there was a way.

Chell lifted her head with difficulty and then noticed the blue panel in the distance with the backwards letters. Wait, she had seen that before. In one of the test chambers that had popped up as well. Her eyes winded hopefully, maybe that could be her way out.

But when she tried to move she gasped in pain. Everything hurt, but she had to reach it. No matter what. With an aching body she started to make her way there. She crawled and pushed and cried but she was making progress. When she had finally come there she was exhausted, both mentally and physically. But she was there.

Reaching out a trembling hand Chell stroked her fingers over the blue screen, touching one of the words. There was a soft clicking sound and the screen disappeared. She felt tired unconsciousness wash over her and Chell closed her eyes, a smile in triumph on her face.

The world turned black once again.

* * *

 **Loading…**

 **Hey guys. As it must be noticeable this story was put on a hold there for a while due to a writer's block. Cri. Don't worry though, it's anything but abandoned. Sorry to have you all waiting for so long though. In the mean time I (re)wrote another little story** ** _Aperture High School_** **and it's almost finished, it only needs one more chapter, so go read that if you want. After that this story will be all going again. But since I managed to write this chapter in between I decided to upload it so you can have a little something before I jump back into this story again, and also to show that it's not dead either.**

 **Little note; yes I know the words** ** _you died_** **don't show up in the game when you die. But it's just to…. I don't know. It just came up in my head to do that. Hope it's not a bother.**

 **Extra little note; you can follow me on Instagram. My username is portal_fangirl, it's a fan account and I post daily and regular updates on my fanfictions as well. So if you're interested you can also follow me there.**

 **Thanks for your patience.**


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